A team from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand have come up with a way to generate long electrical arcs while reducing the amount of energy required by about 95 per cent of previous experiments.
The arcs are generated using copper wire of about 0.2mm wide. By pushing voltage into the wire, it causes the wire to explode, producing light and plasma.
This means the arc is visible, albeit briefly, to the naked eye as it scorches through the air.
According to Inside Science, the NZ team thinks this kind of study could be useful beyond providing fodder for nice looking photography. It could potentially allow scientists to study natural lightning in controlled environments, rather then standing around hoping for lightning to strike nearby.
It may even provide easy ways to actually harness lightning.
It's possible that we could also use plasma arcs to create new electrical machines that use plasma as an energy source.
A paper based on the study has been approved for publication in the Journal of Applied Physics.
[Inside Science]
